Connections...again
snow15145
kking0731 at snow15145.yahoo.invalid
Thu Sep 14 01:43:20 UTC 2006
This is a duplicate since I will be sending this to TOL as well since
it originated there.
Dumbledore may certainly be dead but will his spirit live on to give
direction?
My thoughts start with the connection (I wrote about in message
109837 before HBP) between Dumbledore, Fawkes and Harry. I hadn't
thought about the connection again until recently when I reread The
Phoenix Lament and found a further connection to my first summary.
Basically it goes something like this:
(1) Harry's first true introduction to Fawkes was hearing his arrival
by way of phoenix song in the Chamber immediately after saying "He's
not as gone as you might think!" {COS pg. 315}
Dumbledore confides to Harry that only true loyalty to him could have
caused such a reaction from the phoenix. This is when and how the
connection may have been created between the three of them.
(2) The next connection that we see is in the Priori Incantatem
chapter of GOF when the brother wands that have Fawkes cores, connect
and form a webbed dome which simultaneously induced music:
"And then an unearthly and beautiful sound filled the air
It was
coming from every thread of the light-spun web[
]" {GOF pg. 664}
This was a sound that Harry recognized because he heard it before; it
was the phoenix song. To Harry "It was the sound of hope" {GOF pg.
664} and "He felt as though the song were inside him instead of just
around him
It was the sound he connected with Dumbledore "{GOF pg.
664}
This connection Harry made between the sound of the phoenix song and
Dumbledore was giving Harry orders:
"Don't break the connection."
(3) In the OOP we have yet another example of the connection between
the Phoenix, Dumbledore and Harry but different from the first
examples. This time the sight of Dumbledore induces the feeling that
the Phoenix song gives Harry.
"A powerful emotion had risen in Harry's chest at the sight of
Dumbledore, a fortified, hopeful feeling rather like that which
phoenix song gave him. {OOP pg. 139}
(4) The final connection we see in HBP, there are three separate
instances.
(a) Harry had just announced to the persons visiting Bill that
Dumbledore was dead:
"-more Death Eaters arrived and then Snape and Snape did it. The
Avada Kedavra." Harry couldn't go on. {HBP pg. 614}
At these words Madam Pomphrey bursts into tears and Ginny
whispers "Shh! Listen!" {HBP pg. 614}
This is when everyone notices that the phoenix song is filling the
air outside but Harry felt as though "[
] the music was inside him,
not without: It was his own grief turned magically to song that
echoed across the grounds and through the castle windows." {HBP pg.
615}
(b) Again we see that Harry's statement to Bill's room of visitors of
Snape's comment "He shouted, `It's over," [
] "He'd done what he'd
meant to do." {HBP pg. 621} is directly followed by more feelings
induced from the phoenix song, which Harry relates to Dumbledore when
he thinks what has happened and will happen to Dumbledore's body.
(c) The final mention occurs at Dumbledore's funeral {HBP pgs. 644-
45} directly after Harry has come to terms with the fact that
Dumbledore really is dead and that there was no one left to protect
him. At almost this precise moment "white flames had erupted around
Dumbledore's body", white smoke was obscuring the body which made
strange shapes one of which Harry thought was a phoenix
flying "joyfully into the blue".
In example (1) Harry unknowingly calls Fawkes by making a loyal
statement that Dumbledore is the greatest wizard that ever lived and
is not as gone as Voldemort thinks he is. Voldemort snickers and
comments that Dumbledore sent Harry a songbird and an old hat.
Dumbledore told Harry that his loyalty called Fawkes to him and yet
Voldemort states that Fawkes was sent:
"This is what Dumbledore sends his defender!" {COS pg. 316}
However it may be important to notice that although Harry didn't know
what use Fawkes or the hat could be, Harry took comfort that at least
he wasn't alone. (Unusual that Harry would take comfort, I would
think, to not feel alone with a bird and an old hat that tells you
were you will be sorted)
In example (2) Harry's wand, which was created from Fawkes feather,
spins a web that not only soothingly sings to Harry but also gives
orders to Harry of what he should do. Now the music seems to not only
be around him but in him to the point of telling Harry what to do.
In example (3) the sight of Dumbledore induces the same feeling Harry
found comforting about the phoenix song he heard in the graveyard.
This example is quite unique since Harry doesn't actually hear the
song but equates how the song made him feel to be the same as seeing
Dumbledore; it gave Harry hope.
(This makes me think of a quote from the bible "So faith, hope, love
abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians
13:13
Harry possesses great quantities of love; Harry feels hope inside his
very soul when he hears phoenix song; Faith is all that is left for
Harry to capture of the three.)
In example (4a) we find the announcement that Dumbledore is dead at
the hand of Snape directly followed by phoenix song that Harry felt
was in him and about him (his own grief over Dumbledore's death).
In example (4b) Harry recounts the storyline of what happened that
night with all parties involved and when he reaches the concluding
statement that Snape had done what he meant to do, Harry finds
himself lost in the music from the phoenix song thinking about
Dumbledore's body, which in turn causes Harry to ask for a funeral.
The final example (4c) is my favorite because it happens like an
answer to a question. Harry is questioning himself and the loss of
his mentors and protectors to a final conclusion that he is all alone
when all of a sudden Harry envisions a phoenix joyfully flying from
the place were his mentors body lay into the blue sky above. It's
almost like Dumbledore could read Harry's thoughts and gave him a
sign that he's not alone.
Just a few extra thoughts
Examples (2) and (4a) are quite similar since both of these instances
conclude with Harry feeling the phoenix song is inside him. It isn't
simply that Harry hears the song but that he feels the song strongly
enough that it becomes part of him, like a bond.
Examples (4a) and (4b) also have something in common
both instances
of phoenix song occur just after Harry concludes important messages
about Snape killing Dumbledore. The first message is that Snape did
the Avada Kedavra the second message was "He'd done what he'd meant
to do."
I will end this with but one more thought from COS pgs. 263-64:
"However," said Dumbledore [
] "you will find that I will only truly
have left this school when none here are loyal to me. You will also
find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for
it."
Is Dumbledore really gone
remember; "He's not as gone as you might
think!"
Snow
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